CEBU, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has directed Regional Trial Court Judge Estela Alma Singco to proceed with the trial of the rape case filed against a leader of the Higaonon Tribe.
Ha Datu Tawahig also known as Roderick Sumatra filed a petition for mandamus to compel Singco and her co-respondents, all public prosecutors from Cebu City, to end his case. He alleged that the Dadantulan Tribal Court cleared him of rape.
Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, however, denied the petition.
He ruled that nowhere in Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous People's Rights Act that states that courts of law are to abandon jurisdiction over criminal proceedings in favor of mechanisms applying customary law.
"Petitioner derives no right from the Dadantulan Tribal Court to be spared from criminal liability. The Regional Trial Court is under no obligation to defer to the exculpatory pronouncements made by the Dadantulan Tribal Court. Instead, it must proceed to rule on petitioner's alleged liability with all prudence and erudition," read the decision.
In 2006, a complaint of rape was filed before the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office against Sumatra.
The Prosecutor's Office has elevated the case to the court after finding probable cause.
Singco issued a warrant of arrest in 2007. Sumatra was only arrested in 2013.
Following his arrest, Sumatra filed a motion to quash and supplemental motion to quash, invoking the Indigenous People's Right Act that the court had no jurisdiction over his case.
Sumatra, through counsel, asserted that the issue was purely a dispute involving indigenous cultural communities over which customary laws must apply in accordance with their tribal justice system and under the jurisdiction of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Singco, however, denied the motion.
Hence, the petition.
In its ruling, the SC stated that individuals belonging to indigenous cultural communities who were charged with criminal offenses cannot invoke the Indigenous People's Rights Act to evade prosecution and liability under the courts of law.
"The application of customary laws may enable a measure of reparation for private injuries engendered by criminal offenses, but it will never enable the consummate recompense owed to the State and the Filipino people. Ultimately then, yielding prosecution would mean sanctioning a miscarriage of justice," read the decision.
To yield criminal prosecution would be able to disregard the state and the Filipino people as the objects of criminal offenses, the SC added. (FREEMAN)